Yay !!! We now own a Mercedes...

Penske Mercedes is taking over Smart sales...We can expect high costs for maintenance and repairs, but we get a classier experience at the dealership...They better be sure to wash my Smart after they service it and give me free gourmet coffee...

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Hey, my MB dealer (where I bought my smart) is very reasonable and very professional. It's the only dealer in UT and surrounding area and have rates that are more than fair. Open Saturdays too (closed on Mondays for service). I'm very happy that they will continue servicing smarts.

Not being a stand alone franchise and being held to the breast of a Mercedes dealership offers some distinct advantages...Smart will now be assumed to be a quality product, with innovative design , solid engineering, and Germanic status... The buying public is easily manipulated by their own prejudices...

Just a note about the original post; "Penske Mercedes" (not sure what that is) will not be handling smart sales and service - Mercedes-Benz USA will. M-B USA recently announced the appointment of their new manager for smart USA: Effective May 1st, (Ms.) Tracey Matura will take over the role of general manager for Smart USA. Matura started her career with MBUSA as corporate counsel and was promoted to general counsel in 2000. She has held her current post of general manager of strategic retail development since 2006. In her new role as general manager of Smart USA, Matura handle distribution, sales and marketing activities here in the States, while reporting to vice president of sales Michael Slagter.

Sorry about that confusion...I meant that Mercedes dealerships owned by Penske will be initially the only ones selling the Smart...Mercedes dealerships owned by others may sell the Smart...The future of totally autonomous Smart dealerships is in doubt...

jwight said:

Just a note about the original post; "Penske Mercedes" (not sure what that is) will not be handling smart sales and service - Mercedes-Benz USA will. M-B USA recently announced the appointment of their new manager for smart USA: Effective May 1st, (Ms.) Tracey Matura will take over the role of general manager for Smart USA. Matura started her career with MBUSA as corporate counsel and was promoted to general counsel in 2000. She has held her current post of general manager of strategic retail development since 2006. In her new role as general manager of Smart USA, Matura handle distribution, sales and marketing activities here in the States, while reporting to vice president of sales Michael Slagter.

Again, this is an incorrect statement. At this point, no one is actually sure which dealerships (independent smart Dealerships, that is) will close, and which will be able to re-negotiate with MBUSA to stay open as smart dealers. If Penske owns any MB dealerships, AND they also incorporate a smart dealership, then there is a good chance they will stay open (the smart-side). As to the 50+ smart dealerships that are run in conjunction with a MB dealership (most of which, i assure you, have nothing to do with Penske, on the MB side), it is believed that all will remain open. Again, this has nothing to do with who owns the individual MB dealerships. MB USA, an entirely separate corporate entity from any Penske-owned operation, will be taking over distribution of the smart brand in a few months. Once MBUSA takes over, it will be up to them to license smart dealerships in the USA. Penske will be completely out of the picture, where smart management is concerned.

and Penkse does own some MB dealerships: check out this article from October 2010 (Our new incoming leader, Tracy Matura, attended this event) in Westport, CT (they have actually owned the facility for 10 years and did a facelift).

"Penske Automotive Group recently celebrated the Grand Opening of its new Mercedes-Benz of Fairfield’s Showroom, located on 165 Commerce Drive."

I doubt that Penske Mercedes dealerships which currently have a Smart dealership attached to it will drop the Smart product... Their parts and service are already intergrated...

GetSmrt28277 said:

and Penkse does own some MB dealerships: check out this article from October 2010 (Our new incoming leader, Tracy Matura, attended this event) in Westport, CT (they have actually owned the facility for 10 years and did a facelift).

"Penske Automotive Group recently celebrated the Grand Opening of its new Mercedes-Benz of Fairfield’s Showroom, located on 165 Commerce Drive."

All i know is i'm not even sure i want to keep my Smart anymore. I love the thing to death.... but even barring the idea that i now live at least an hour and a half away from the nearest Smart dealer.... which could change whenever this whole changeover happens... I haven't really been pleased with the "service" experience ever since Smart Center Devon closed. Before i even PURCHASED my car... when i was in the process of picking it up... the only person who was able to take me down there so i could get it was my mom... who's not a huge fan of driving down to philly. The only reason she even needed to be there was to co-sign. The person at Devon handling my sale offered lived a bit closer to me than to the dealership, and offered to not only pick me up and take me down there, but also stop off where my mom works so she could sign the papers in his presence at least, before heading down. They actually had loaner cars, which the majority of dealerships seem to lack, especially the ones i've had to go to. Devon had loaner Smart's. No matter what i went to the Devon dealership for... even if it was to basically pop in and say "Hi"... they'd take my car and get it washed and vaccuumed. Neither Smart Center Trevose, nor Smart Center Cherry Hill even bothered to wash it... even though Trevose has told me that they wash any car that comes in for service, and Cherry Hill even printed out on the bill that i recieved a "complimentary" car wash. I basically dread going to a dealership anymore, because every one i've been to since Devon has been a let-down, both in personality and how much they seemed to care. I just get the feeling that they think "Well, you didn't buy the car from us, so why should we treat you like you did?"

I really hope that the whole switch over changes things... but i'm not getting my hopes up.

I am suprised these non-selling dealers do not seem to realize they stand to make way more from service and parts than the amount made at the time of sale. If I were the dealer, I would try to cultivate all the service business I could no matter where the car was sold.